Tragedy During Rush
Hour

So, I was on my way to work on Wednesday. I heard the
freeway was backed up so I decided to take a surface
street. There goes a red light and I had to stop. I
looked across the street to a commotion and noticed a
woman lying in the road and another holding her neck.
Several people were standing on the sidewalk just
gaping.

I didn't think. I just whipped around the corner,
parked my car in a bus stop, jumped out of the car
and held up my hand like a New Yorker, screaming at
the people whizzing by to stop their cars.
Miraculously, they did.

I ran across the street and bent down to the woman,
saying, 'I'm a nurse, I'm here to help you.' I
attempted to ask the woman her name, but while she
tracked my movements with her eyes, she didn't
respond. Not knowing what her baseline was, I didn't
know if she EVER could share her name, so I moved on.
I scanned the area. A mangled bike was laying in the
road. Apparently she'd been biking and had been hit
by an oversized semi. I later learned that she was
riding on the sidewalk, but for some reason had
decided to go into what might be considered a bike
lane right at that intersection (it could have been
due to another bus stop on that side of the road and,
with people there, rather than attempt to maneuver
around them, she instead went into the street). She
apparently hugged the curb but moved out a little too
soon, and was clipped by the last axle of the
trailer.

She was breathing shallowly, trying not to move. I
felt for a pulse. Thready, fast and weak. I looked up
at the other woman holding c-spine, so that in case
she had a spinal injury she wouldn't paralyze herself
by inadvertently moving. I started to get scared for
this woman. The other woman said she was a nurse too.
I wasn't sure what to do since I didn't have a kit.
Someone had called 911. Help was on the way.

I felt for her respirations. I saw a bunch of
abrasions on the right side of her body. I felt for
broken ribs. It felt like they were all broken. I
felt the ribs compress and crackle with each breath.
I was more scared. At least one lung was useless. The
'snap-crackle-pop' I knew was subcutaneous air in the
space outside her lungs putting pressure on her
breathing. Her breathing was agonal. The breathing
one gets as they're breathing their last. God, where
WAS that damn fire department!

Her eyes stopped tracking my moves. Her vision looked
like it was fading. . .

Sirens!

Police and fire showed up at the same time. I stated
that I was a nurse. I was given an IV kit, but as I
went to start an IV, I noticed her lips turning blue.
I yelled at her, 'No no no no no!' She was giving up
and I wasn't ready for her to give up! Damn it!

I threw down the IV supplies and grabbed some oxygen,
put in an airway (with the help of the other nurse
because the woman's jaws were clamping down) and
started to breath for her with the mask. Leads were
placed. CPR started. Drugs given. Shocks given. She
was intubated, IV was started. Shocks and more drugs.
PEA. CPR. Didn't matter. Come ON! Come back to us.
Helicopter landed. She's gone. We dropped our hands.
The code was called. Blanket was placed over her.
Helicopter left. A life lost in the street.

I was high on adrenalin for over an over afterward,
then I just crashed. I couldn't help it. I just
crashed. I could barely keep my eyes open. And when I
would close them, I could see her pretty blonde hair,
her blue blue eyes, starting at me, scared, confused.

Miraculously, I went to work, put in almost a full
day, then drove in rush hour home. I got home and
noticed some of the keys were missing from my
keychain. They must have fallen off at the scene. How
did THAT happen? The next day I called several of the
detectives and sergeants before finally getting a
hold of the detective in charge who told me that he
had my keys locked in evidence and would bring them
to me the next day. Wow. I didn't have to come claim
them? How amazingly nice of him. He would come to me.
So, apparently he'll meet me at work tomorrow. And
yet, I still can't get past those eyes, staring at me
as life slipped away. . . .

|

Moving!

A few months ago, I had decided that I was not going
to stay in the house I'd been renting. For one thing,
it was way too big for just me and my dog. For
another, I rented the house to avoid a lot of the
grief I'd dealt with over the past year. I've been a
home owner before. I didn't want to deal with home
repairs, finding lawn maintenance crew etc. And this
out of state owner wanted me to do most of the work
myself. Uh, no. Time for me to find a smaller, cuter
house. The house may have a kitchen with an island
the size of Rhode Island and a spa in the backyard,
but these pros didn't outweigh the cons.

I found a house about 3 miles away. It's more of a
patio home with one shared wall. Actually that shared
wall is part of the kitchen and garage. It's all tile
floors except for the bedroom which has new carpet.
Lots of planter shelves, and it was less expensive
than the other house. Oh yea.

So the day of the move arrived. The movers showed up
bright and early. They had everything on the truck
within 90 minutes. Oh, well it helped that I was 'one
of the most organized people they'd ever seen' (their
quote) and had all of my boxes in the garage stacked
by room, as well as the smaller pieces of furniture
like file cabinets, end tables.

We drove the three miles to the new house, and within
another 90 minutes the boxes and furniture was
unloaded. I then went back to the other house to
finish cleaning, mopping and shampooing the carpets.
I'd done the two smaller bedrooms and my mother came
down from her house to help me clean and shampoo the
rest. After this, we were so wiped. I wanted to take
off and eat lunch, but I had to wait for the cable
guy. So mom left while I started unpacking. . .and
unpacking. . .and unpacking. Over the next three
days, I unpacked, organized, cleaned, decorated and
set my house in order. I slept a couple hours then
got up to do some more.

Sounds normal right? Well, I knew I had to do most of
the unpacking on my own. I also knew that I would go
crazy waiting for someone else to help me. So, I
started doing some things on my own, like hanging my
70 pound mirror, and assembling my u-shaped desk.
While putting the desk together, however, I managed
to drop a piece, right on my laptop monitor. After
swearing, crying and generally acting despondent, I
remembered that I'd taken a rider out on this
computer and it was fully insured. After being on the
phone with the insurance company for 30 minutes, I
was told that in 48 hours, I would have the money in
my checking account to go buy a new computer.

I used to have an Apple Powerbook G4. I now have a
Mac Book Pro. This thing, I think, makes coffee. It
has a backlit keyboard, and this super drive that
will, in essence, allow me to record my entire iTunes
library on one disk. Have I shared how many audio
books and songs I have on there? Anyway. . . .

I'm finally moved in. Pictures and curtains are hung.
Boxes are empty and broken down. AND I have a new
computer. Life could be much worse.